Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s new strategy to destroy Ukraine’s infrastructure and plunge it into darkness will not weaken the country’s determination to liberate the entire occupied country, describing the conflict as a “war of strength and resilience”.
The Ukrainian president bucked the West’s fears of escalation and insisted that there would be no lasting solution to the war unless Russia withdrew from all the territories it occupied.
Moscow has stepped up a bombing campaign against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure since last month in hopes of forcing concessions from Kyiv despite its battlefield advances.
“We must return all lands . . . because I believe that when there is no diplomacy, the battlefield is the way,” Zelenskyy told the Financial Times. “If you don’t get your country back in full, the war is just frozen. It’s a matter of time before it goes on.”
On Wednesday, Russia fired 70 missiles against infrastructure targets across Ukraine, leaving about 80 percent of the country in darkness and without water. All 15 of Ukraine’s nuclear reactors were shut down because the power supply became unstable.
Zelenskyy said in the Presidential Office, which also had no water supply, that this week’s strike was unimaginable in the modern world.
“It was the kind of incident that hasn’t happened in I don’t know how many years, maybe 80, 90 years: a country on the European continent where there was no light at all.”
He said Ukrainians could despair or fight. “The state has defended itself excellently. Energy workers, the state’s Department of Disaster Management, deminers, all worked to fix and restore power and provide at least some water.”
On Thursday morning, the nuclear reactors were reconnected and water began to return in some districts of the capital Kyiv. “This is a war for strength, for resilience, it’s about who’s stronger.”
Even before Wednesday’s strikes, waves of Russian missile attacks had crippled half of the country’s electricity system, causing prolonged power outages for millions of people. After the water supply to the entire capital in Kyiv was cut off this week, some residents had to collect snow to melt it for washing and cooking.
Ukraine is running out of replacement transformer units for its Soviet-era power grid after repeated Russian missile attacks on its grid. It is looking for spare parts from Poland and Lithuania and wants to ramp up domestic production, but assembling new units takes four to eight months.
Oleksandr Kubrakov, infrastructure minister, said Ukraine needed several hundred million dollars in aid – on top of ongoing budget support – to urgently repair its power system.
Zelenskyy also appealed to Ukraine’s western partners to provide more air defense equipment to protect critical infrastructure, as well as diesel supplies for backup generators and additional gas to cover power shortages.
The president said the attacks on civilian infrastructure showed Moscow had no intention of negotiating an end to the war.
Kyiv has resisted perceived pressure to show its openness to an eventual negotiated solution to the war. Some Western partners fear that any attempt by Ukraine to retake Russia’s 2014 annexed Crimea, which Russia considers vital to its security, could lead to a dangerous escalation by Moscow, possibly even the use of nuclear weapons.
As Ukrainian forces advance against Russian forces to the south and east, Ukraine’s military objectives have intensified: it seeks to return territory occupied since February and land occupied during the 2014 Russian attack.
Zelenskyy acknowledged that the fate of Crimea is on the international agenda.
“I understand that everyone is confused by the situation and what will happen to Crimea. If someone is ready to offer us a way to deoccupy Crimea by non-military means, I will only be for it,” said Zelenskyy. “If the solution [does not involve] dismissal and [Crimea] is part of the Russian Federation, no one should waste their time on it. It’s a waste of time.”